


Prologue

by abbyli



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor (Movies)
Genre: A Family Is A Family Is A Family, Adoption, F/M, Jane Foster Feels, Kid Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-03
Updated: 2017-04-03
Packaged: 2018-10-14 11:14:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,728
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10535316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abbyli/pseuds/abbyli
Summary: “This isn’t your fault,” Jane says softly.Steve kneels in front of his wife, gripping her hands tightly in his. “You deserve better than this.”She nearly sobs at the words, pushing herself off of the chair so they are face to face. Her hands lightly loosen from his and rest on each side of his face. “I don’t care about any of that. No,” she adds when he opens his mouth to protest. “All I want is you.”(The one where Steve discovers he cannot have children and he and Jane deal. They find happiness in the end.)





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [acaseofthemondays](https://archiveofourown.org/users/acaseofthemondays/gifts), [Thordisx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thordisx/gifts), [Artemis_Day](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Artemis_Day/gifts).



.

Jane never expected to end up with another Avenger after she and Thor called it quits.

Let alone Captain freaking America.

Something happened though, something that definitely shouldn’t have happened but it did. And now? Now Jane wouldn’t change it for anything in the world.

The first time they slept together, Jane was drunk, Steve was plastered. Yeah, a welcome back party thrown by Darcy and the alcohol was supplied by Thor. Special mead that sent a regular human well on their way after only a couple of sips. Super soldiers were another story.

So when it happened, Jane was surprised she didn’t end of pregnant. A huge part of her was relieved she didn’t, of course, but _heck_ she had six brothers and sisters and she was the only one that didn’t have children yet. Her family was extremely fertile and of course the god of fertility had – okay that was another story.

The second time they slept together, Steve had used protection and Jane didn’t even think. Their relationship was mostly hook ups and Jane suspected that they were using each other more for comfort than anything else. She wasn’t about to get attached, she really wasn’t.

And then Steve was shot twice during a mission and Jane’s whole world began to crumble down around her.

He lived. She asked him to move in with her.

Her best friend married his best friend. Now that was something to get used too. Jane adored Darcy with all of her heart and was happy for her but she couldn’t help but be wary about the Winter Soldier. The triggers had been removed from his head by the mutant Charles Xavier just months before so a huge collective sigh of relief came from everyone.

Steve moves in with her and it felt quite strange to Jane to have someone to come home too every night. She got so used to that, that the nights that he wasn’t there she knew he was off somewhere putting his stupid self in danger. And every morning after he came home with bruises on his face but _alive_ and Jane never wanted to let him out of her arms again.

They decided to try for a baby.

“Put a ring on it first, Janey,” Darcy had told her. Steve walked in on the conversation and his face flushed with red. After kicking Darcy out, he turned to her and produced a silver ring with a blue stone set in the middle.

“It was my mother’s,” he whispered.

She’s leaping on him and kissing every inch of bare skin as she murmurs _yes_ over and over again.

They marry in a small church in Brooklyn with only the pastor’s wife as their witness.

Year one passes and still no baby.

Jane had never really thought about children. She knew if she ever became pregnant she would definitely have the child but having a son or daughter of her own was never in her plans for the future. Now she was seeing it. She had chased so many stars in her life time and now she felt herself longing for a different kind of life.

Year two comes.

“I think you and Steve should see a doctor,” Darcy murmurs in her ear as she holds her sobbing form. Another negative pregnancy test sits on the closed toilet lid. “Something’s wrong.”

They do.

Steve later says that he would take getting shot again and times it by ten over the words that Helen tells them.

“The serum did everything but increase your ability to have children,” Helen’s voice is gentle. Sympathetic. “Jane’s all right. But Steve...”

They don’t to hear anymore.

Jane doesn’t speak for two days. She knows that if she opens her mouth, she will start screaming. Or crying. And she may never stop.

Steve disappears and she finds out from Sam that he had shown up drunk off his ass at his and Sharon’s apartment, having apparently stashed some of Thor's mead. “I’ll go get him,” Bucky tells her, popping a quick kiss to the top of Darcy’s head before heading out the door.

“What now?” Jane whispers, her voice croaky from disuse.

Steve stumbles through their door, his arm slung around Bucky’s neck, an hour later. Bucky deposits him on the couch and gently drags Darcy from the apartment.

Jane watches her husband sleep and notices his cheeks are suspiciously wet. She spends most of the night in the kitchen, and she’s not sure but she may have gone drank two pots of coffee. He finds her in there at the ass-crack of dawn, a new pot of coffee ready to come off of the stove.

“I’m sorry.”

Jane sips at her ninth cup, fighting a sob that was welling in her throat. “I know.”

He sits behind her stool, the kitchen chair pulled up so his head rests against her waist. Jane turns on the stool and cradles his head in her arms, running her fingers through his blond tresses. “This isn’t your fault,” Jane says softly.

Steve kneels in front of his wife, gripping her hands tightly in his. “You deserve better than this.”

She nearly sobs at the words, pushing herself off of the chair so they are face to face. Her hands lightly loosen from his and rest on each side of his face. “I don’t care about any of that. No,” she adds when he opens his mouth to protest. “All I want is you.”

He cries then and so does she, his face pressed into her stomach as he murmurs _I’m sorry_ over and over into her skin.

-;

Darcy’s pregnant.

She figures it out before her best friend tells her. Bucky, understandably, freaks out a bit and takes off to beat up innocent punching bags in the gym and Steve follows him.

“I’m sorry, Janey,” Darcy is actually _sorry_ she’s about to experience something amazing and Jane’s heart breaks. “I –“

“Darcy?” Jane holds up a hand to stop her in mid tirade. “Just shut up and hug me.”

She stands guard when Darcy breaks the news to her brother about her pregnancy, breathing a sigh of relief when Tony doesn’t freak out.

As she and Steve watch their best friends get ready for their miracle, a thought niggles into Jane’s brain.

She brings the idea up to him one night as they lay curled on the sofa together watching a movie.

“Adoption?” he repeats, sitting up and pulling her with him. “Are you sure?”

She nods. “I don’t want to do a donor. I don’t want to have a baby that’s just mine, and not yours. Does that make sense?”

Steve’s mouth twists. “Yeah. Yeah it does.”

They make love that night, slowly and sweetly with a newfound hope that just maybe...things will be okay.

Their nephew comes screaming into the world on an cold early morning, ready to kick a little ass already.

Jane’s the second to hold him after his parents and she stares at the tiny boy in wonder. For just a moment, she allows herself to believe that this is her baby, with Steve’s sandy blond hair and her chin. But no. The boy has Darcy’s curly dark locks and Bucky’s nose. She fights back tears as she passes him to Steve, leaning around and resting her chin on her husband’s shoulder as they relish in the goodness that is there that day.

-;

“We’ve been picked as potential parents for this little girl.” Jane’s hands are shaking as she pulls the papers from the manila envelope. “Her name is Elizabeth and she’s almost two years old. _Steve ...”_

His hands catch hers, giving them a gentle squeeze. “Take it easy, Janey.”

They meet Elizabeth two days later and Jane isn’t going to lie – she’s madly in love already.

The little girl is gorgeous with dark brown hair that hangs down her back and brown skin, blue eyes that are soft and hopeful even after the tragedies she had suffered already at her young age.

“I want her,” Jane whispers as they drive home that night.

Elizabeth chooses them.

Eight months later, the adoption is finalized.

“Jane, are you sure we should be there?” Darcy asks, positively wrestling with Matthew as she tries to pull the new nappie on over his pudgy legs.

“I do,” Jane says. “Elizabeth is already well acquainted with you and Bucky but she hasn’t met her cousin yet so –“

Darcy cannot help but laugh. “Cousin,” she says. She pokes Matthew in the stomach and he squeals with happiness. “You hear that, Matty? You’re getting a cousin.”

Matty reaches out his arms for Jane, cooing in content when she picks him up.

“Hey, where’d you go --?” Steve freezes in the doorway, his eyes crinkling when he sees her holding Matty in her arms. Within a matter of hours, they would be in their home holding their new daughter.

Nothing would be right in the world, no. Nothing was ever right.

But the love...oh god the _love_ was what got them all through.

-;

“ _Mommy_.”

Tears spill down Jane’s cheeks. She pecks at Elizabeth’s forehead, Steve’s arms surrounding the both of them.

“Can we go home now?” Elizabeth asks.

“Of course, honey,” Steve murmurs. He kisses her cheek before smacking a kiss to Jane’s mouth. “I love you so much.”

“I love you too.”

Steve holds out his arms and Elizabeth easily moves into them, resting her hands on his shoulders as he lifts her up. Jane gathers up the bag of clothes, following her husband and daughter from the small cold room and into the warm summer air. They find their friends sitting outside, Matty cooing at the lightening bugs that dance in the summer night.

Jane loops an arm around Steve’s waist, understanding when his arms still remain tight around their daughter. Elizabeth stares at a point over Steve’s shoulder and when Jane chances a peek, she sees her communicating with Matty already.

Their friends move to their car while they move to their own. Elizabeth’s slipping off into dreamland, a peaceful one Jane hopes as she climbs into the backseat of the car after her. She waves to Darcy through the rearview mirror, mouthing a silent _I love you_ as Steve pulls the car away from the curb and onward into the beginning of their new life.


End file.
